I Saved A Whole Year

I started this blog last June and a year later I'm still using 3 papers and printing here and there and using what I can. Most recently Kroger had Ball Park hot dogs $1 each and then $1.50 each for a few weeks. The register was printing out catalinas every time I bought some so I kept buying. Got about 30+ packs. And now I'm working on the current Daytone Mega Kroger is having. So to those who have wondered if I'm still around, yep.

Triple Mega Mania Managed

This week many stores are starting or continuing mega sales of buy 10 participating items get $5 off. Kroger, Hollywood, and VG's are 3 of them. After doing all my planning and coupon gathering for a day and a half at least I finally got out the door today at about 4 pm. My plan was to at least go to one Kroger and then to Hollywood Market and then if there was time go to another Kroger. Reason being that as a Kroger employee I don't want to do multiple transactions in one store at one time and I had more than 3 coupons or similar coupons for some of my items and didn't want them being taken for some items and not for others. Especially since some of them were on my card. I like to be able to check the receipt to see if it took the digital off.

What I have below is the actual printed list I used to help me this time. I sorted my coupons into little 10 item groups rather than by aisle or category. What is shown is the item and the quantity. Every item I bought today had some sort of coupon used. And all except for the carrots were part of a mega 10 item combo sale. I did go to Kroger at 25 Mile & Dequinder, Hollywood at Rochester & Tienken (25 Mile continued in the next county), and then Kroger at Walton & Livernois. It turns out that this printout saved me a ton of time. I was only in the first store about 1:20 and I had plenty of time to drop in to the other two stores. I have a planned VG's trip added on that I plan to do before the end of the week since I found some more coupons to give me 10 items there.

At the first store before she started scanning my coupons my total was $112.97.
My total below for the 3 stores after coupons is $112.05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KROGER 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maxwell House Coffee - 1
Pebbles Cereal - 1
Ragu - 6
Philadelphia Cream Cheese - 1
Northern 12 pk - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom's Cereal - 2
Birds Eye Frozen Vegetables - 6
New York Knots - 1
New York Garlic Toast - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hormel Chili - 6
Armour Meatballs - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunts Tomatoes - 9
Hidden Valley Ranch - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Franks Red Hot Buffalo - 1
Franks Red Hot Thick - 2
French's Yellow Mustard - 3
French’s Honey Mustard - 3
Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kroger Mini Carrots - 2

52 items - $67.74


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOLLYWOOD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A1 - 2
Kraft Homestyle - 6
Kraft Parm Cheese - 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kraft Dressing - 6
Planters PB - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20 Items - $24.44

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KROGER 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ragu - 2
French's Dijon - 2
French's Horseradish Mustard - 2
French's Spicy Brown - 2
French’s Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce - 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Franks Red Hot - Buffalo - 1
Franks Red Hot - Hot Buffalo - 2
Franks Red Hot - BBQ - 1
Franks Red Hot - Sweet Chili - 2
Heluva Good Dip - 3
Planters Peanuts - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20 Items - $19.87

3 Store Total = 92 Items for $112.05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VG's - Planned trip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kraft Shredded Cheese - 4
-$2
$5.96 for 4

A.1. Steak Sauce - 1
-$1
$1.49 for 1

Hellmann’s Mayo - 3
-$1.50
$5.97 for 3

Velveeta Cheesy Skillets - 2
-$2
$0.98 for 2

Should be
10 Items - $14.40 total

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate it.

Brown Bag Inc. or make that Ink.

My HP LaserJet P1102w black ink printer came with a toner cartridge to get me started. According to the box its supposed to last 700 pages. I posted about getting the printer back in mid July and my printer has just recently told me I have less than 50 pages to go. So it was time to get a toner cartridge. This week Office Max is having a 20% off anything you can fit in the brown bag that came in your delivered sunday newspaper. I also bought 2 papers but the bag was not in them. The HP 85a (CE285A) toner cartridge is supposed to print 1600 pages and its $70. So I figured $14 off was a decent enough coupon to take advantage of especially since I might need to print some tax documents soon and don't want to get caught without ink. So I went today and since I'm not quite up to speed on when these things are on sale I decided to buy two of them for $56 each. So if 700 lasted me 6 months I should be set for ink for close to two years. Now I just need the coupon sites to not disappear or decide to start charging for everything. If you don't have the bag you can also buy online at OfficeMax.com if you use the code BIGDEAL20 but make sure you type it in all caps.

This Kroger Mega Event post is rated PG

Or make that P & G (Procter & Gamble).
For the first time since I started this current couponing journey last year I went to a store to purposely purchase laundry products. Timing was everything. First we were almost out of laundry detergent and fabric softener. Second it was the week that the newest P & G Brandsaver insert was in the paper. Third many stores are having sales on P & G products.

So after a month or so of not buying extra papers due to them not having any or enough inserts to bother I did get my 3 total this past week. Each paper had 4 inserts: 1 Red Plum, 2 Smart Source, 1 P & G. Also one of my papers had an extra of 1 Smart Source.

Kroger has one of their mega events going this week and possibly next week in which you buy a combination of participating items and you get an additional dollar amount off the sale price. This event is buy 4 P & G items with the special blue tags and get $4 off or $1 off each item.
Then repeat with 4 more items if you want. Then you try to match these items with coupons to get even more off. So I researched my two favorite local matchup blogs, Coupons Equal Cash and Bargains To Bounty to see what the best prices were on the items I wanted for the past year and what I found is for the most part the best prices were for the same P&G event last New Years at Kroger. Although a few items went up a few cents. Bargains To Bounty's Kroger matchups for this week has the prices for the items in the ad but the store has more items with blue tags.

So I needed Detergent and Softener and Tide & Downy are both in the event. I did 2 shopping trips yesterday and today, both at the Kroger I work at. Yesterday I had 3 coupons for $2 off 1 Tide and 3 coupons for $1.50 off 2 Downy or Bounce. I also had 3 coupons for 20¢ off 1 Dawn which double to 40¢. So that's 3 Tide (50 oz 30-32 loads) for $2.99 each + 6 Downy (51 oz 60 loads)at $3.54 ea + 3 Dawn (24 oz) for $1.34 ea = 12 items or 3 Mega combos. I also bought 2 Liquid Plumr using $1 coupons I found on their Facebook page

Today was payday so I was saving my bigger trip for today using other coupons. Last night I loaded another $2 off 1 Tide coupon and a $1 off 1 Downy coupon onto my Kroger Plus card which you can do at Kroger's website. You need a Kroger card in order to get their sale prices.

So here's the rundown for both trips.

4 Tide total for $2.99 ea or 200 oz / 120 loads for $11.96.

6 Downy (51 oz / 60 loads) at $3.54
1 Downy (51 oz 60 loads) at $3.29 (420 loads total for $24.53)

3 Dawn (24 oz) at $1.34 (72 oz for 4.02)

6 Old Spice deodorants 99¢ ea after Mega and then $1 off 2 coupons made them 49¢ ea

This completed my P & G Megas with 16 items. I also had a spend $50 get $5 off coupon that Kroger mailed to me that I used yesterday. I had some non coupon items also that put me over $50 after coupons but then back to $48 after. I had 17 items so that's like having a 29¢ coupon for everything.

Here's some of my other coupon items

~~~~~ Yesterday ~~~~~

2 Liquid Plumr $4.19 ea - $1 off ea = $3.19 ea

1 Kroger Hot Sauce 12 oz - $1.07 after 10% employee discount
1 Kroger Honey - $2.25 after 10%

1 Kroger brand / Everyday color bleach $6 after 10% (didn't have a Clorox 2 or similar coupon.)

~~~~~ Today ~~~~~

Frozen items ~~~~~

I had a buy $15 worth of frozen get $3 off

2 Kroger fries - $2.59 ea - 10% emp - 60¢ coupon on card
It took the coupon off the first bag making it $1.99 then - 20¢. Second bag was -26¢ = $2.28 or 2 for $4.27

1 Kroger Fully cooked chicken - got nuggets. $5.49 - 10% and $1 off card coupon - $3.99

2 bags Banquet chicken patties at $3.99 ea to help get me over the $15 mark plus I needed some.

So that's $3 off of those items or another 60¢ off ea

Mailed Coupons ~~~~~

2 Kroger buns $1 ea - 10% - 40¢ off 2 = 70¢ ea

1 brick of Kroger cheese - $2.29 - 10% - 40¢ coupon = $1.66

1 Kroger fresh selections salad - $1.51 - 10% - 50¢ coupon = 86¢
1 Kroger fresh selections salad - $1.51 - 10% - no coupon = $1.36

1 24oz Kroger Cottage Cheese - $1.99 - 10% - 40¢ coupon = $1.39

1 Kroger ground Turkey - $3.79 - 10% - 50¢ = $2.91

2 Kroger Tortilla chips - $1 ea - 10% - 40¢ coupon for ea = 70¢ ea

The Rest of the items ~~~~~~

12 cans Progresso soup - 3 for $4 - 3 coupons for $1 off of 4 = $1.08 ea

3 Starkist Tuna pouches - $1.25 ea - 50¢ coupon doubled = 25¢ each

1 Kroger Daytime cold pills - $3 - 10% = $2.70 (Dayquil is part of the P&G but this is cheaper for me)

3 Red Gold tomatoes - $1.09 ea - $1 off 3 printable that expires 1/7 = 75.6¢ ea

3 Big K pop 2 Liters - 88¢ ea - 10% - 50¢ card coupon + 10¢ ea deposit = .81¢ ea

2 gallons Kroger Milk - $2.49 ea - 10% - $2.24 ea (would have been free if I wanted Special K Cereal)

4 Chex Cereal - $1.99 ea - $1.50 off 2 coupon & $1 off 2 card coupon = $5.46 for 4 boxes or $1.36 each

1 Mike Sells 8 oz chips - $3.19 - 30¢ coupon doubled = $2.59

And that's it except for 2 packs of assorted pork chops for $2.29 lb at just over $8 ea.

Yesterdays total was $48.11
Today was $89.50

Its hard to read the receipts as far as what were my coupons and what were the store discounts but it says I saved 48% $42 and 43% $69

Seasons Savings

Been awhile since I've posted. It's now Thanksgiving evening and I'm still trying to use coupons. I haven't had as much money to use for buying groceries over the past few months since my car insurance started up again and some other things needing my extra cash. I've basically been just getting things to get me through a work week with breakfast and lunch and a few snack items. I did do some coupon trips since August. I've done a few small ones at my Kroger right after my shift. I did a trip to a bigger Kroger 2 weeks ago during the mega event and got about 30+ items. Meijer had Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms 99 cents today but they were out by the time I went. But I did get 2 Birds Eye / Freshlike frozen veggies and 6 Betty Crocker potatoes for about $4 total.

One big problem is I've got about 3-6 months worth of coupons that are expiring in the next 2 weeks and I haven't organized them yet. I started last night and I'm only kinda getting there now. The problem is I've got this urge to take them and use them all and I can't. And because of this I haven't been buying my extra papers since about mid September.

But it beats having to lift 2000 lbs of turkeys in a week.

Just saying that I'm still around.

The Expire Strikes Back

So I struck first. I did a mini shop at Kroger / Work today.


Quaker Life Cereal
$1.99 - 75c off 1
1 box for $1.24

Kettle Brand Potato Chips
$2.49 - $1 off 1 used 3 coupons
3 bags for $1.49 ea

Ball Park Franks
$2 - 75c off 2 used 3 coupons
6 packs $1.63 ea


$3.49 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Lunchmeat 8-9 oz
75c off printable
1 for $2.79

Barilla Piccolini Pasta (regular price)
$1.24 - 55c off 1 digital coupon
1 for $0.69 after coupon

LLoyds pulled pork tub
$3.99 - $1 off printable - used 2 coupons
2 for $2.99 ea

Old El Paso flour tortillas
$1.54 ea - 60c off 3 digital

Some of these digital coupons may not be on the Kroger site. They come and go fast.

I also noticed that Kroger has Red Gold tomatoes $1 each. I've got some $1 off 4 printables I need to use so I might use them on thursday. I think I got them from the Red Gold website but they no longer show for me.

Sorting Solution to Save Sanity?

As mentioned in the last post I'm looking to organize the coupons I haven't sorted for taking to the store. Thus the intermediate step between insert or print page and binder bag page. I have noticed that many people use some sort of shoe box or recipe box for this. I'd thought about trying a floppy disk box for mine but I don't have one. But I've turned to something that I used back when I had to organize about 50 rolls of pictures from my lighthouse trips. Back then I was buying Pop Tarts at Meijer in cases of 36. They contained 3 - 12 count packs. I used the boxes inside to help me sort. This time since I don't have a bunch of Pop Tart boxes I'm starting out with a shoe box and something that I recently acquired, Nutri Grain bar boxes. Not only do I have 6 of them but they come with perforated lines on them to save me the trouble of cutting them. And here is what I have so far.


The boxes are wide enough for printed coupons to fit after cutting. And I can get my fingers in them.

2 Month$ of Summer Saving$ So Far

Its been at least 2 months. So I thought I'd examine my To Do List from June


1. Get Coupon Inserts - As of today I've been getting at least 3 Detroit News / Free Press per Sunday. Still haven't bothered with Macomb Daily or Oakland Press. I'll wait until I see a blogger or forum mention a different insert in those.

2. Organizing - Still in progress. My baggy binder works fine but I need to work on my at home sorting.

3. What Do I Want To Buy - I've been looking up product websites and facebook pages etc to see who even has coupons. Got some bookmarked, others I printed.

4. Printer - Purchased an HP LaserJet P1102w black & white laser printer. Been using it.

5. Exchange - There were a few exchanges I missed because I had to work. Coworkers have lots of vacation time so its hit or miss as to when I can request off.

6. Donate - Got some expireds saved. No donations yet. No stockpile to grab from. And I haven't been stocking up on health and beauty stuff like the TV show. Not yet anyway.

7. Post To Blog - It's 2 months later and I'm still here so lets see if it goes another 2 or at least through the holidays.

8. Add more to this list - Hmm not sure what to put here. I'm thinking of doing something with the brand sites with printable coupons. Something like a list of brands that have had something at one time or another on their website or Facebook so I and others can watch for more. Not quite a big database of all the coupons but whatever I get to. Other sites cover the sites like Coupons.com and Red Plum already.
I'd like to maybe have a give props section to acknowledge when a store or product actually responds to people on their FB page. I see many that ignore when people ask about coupons. But some take the time to answer people.

Anyway, I'm not done Saving yet. Or Blogging. At least in my mind.
Thanks for reading.

I Mega Hauled the Mega Event at Kroger and why

It's been awhile since I did a store trip. VG's changing their policy back to 50 cents and only 1 like coupon has me looking at my other options. And basically I'm reliving the past. When I moved out here in March of 09 I was used to stores being less than a mile away. The nearest Kroger was 4 or 5 miles away and other stores were all closer. I had dollar doublers and Save A Lot all closer. So I didn't go to Kroger unless I was getting something for my Dad. Kroger did help me out a bunch one time. I drove all over trying to find some puffed wheat or rice cereal. I couldn't find it anywhere and finally found it at Kroger in the Kroger Value brand bags. So I moved out here and the closest stores were Kroger 2 miles one way 2.5 another, Hollywood Markets about 4 miles each for 2 different, a few Meijer stores 5+ miles and then VG's 4 miles and 2 miles the other side of the 2 mile Kroger. And then there's Aldi that I'd never been to but I knew it would be a decent place having been to Save A Lot so often.

So when SIL was out of town a few times we needed a few items like milk, coffee, and bread. At the time the coffee prices were like they are now so I was looking for anything decent. I went to VG's and they had cans of coffee for like $12 so I didn't get it. I went to Aldi and got some stuff but the next time I went there they were out of bread so I figured I'd try Kroger. At the time I did not have a Kroger card. I go in and they had bread for $1 or less, milk was $2, and they had coffee for $5. So to the counter I went to get the card. Six months later I'm still trying to find a job and in order to do the app for Kroger you have to take their online quiz for each location. I start filling out the quiz for one and I get sidetracked and it times out. When I come back I start the quiz for a different one, finish it, and then start to redo the first one. I don't remember if I finished it or not but only 10 minutes after I finished the first one the phone rings and its Kroger. I go in to the interview the next day thinking I'm there for a night stocking position. Turns out the guy who does the floor cleaning has to quit for health issues and they needed someone fast. I was a janitor before but it was a dirty tool and die factory type shop with oil and coolants all over and grinding dust. I wasn't supposed to make the floors shine just keep em swept and dry. But I needed the job and I wasn't going to spit in fate's eye so when she said "We've got a few more interviews to do but we're probably going to call you" I was happy. So I got the call and luckily Jim, the floor tech was nice enough to show me the ropes for his last few days. For 13 months I did my best to make the world shine one aisle at a time. Before Jim left he told me that to his knowledge our store was the last one to not contract out the floor cleaning. But alas 13 months in it was and luckily one of the guys in the meat department was leaving for the Air Force so I am now 10 months into being on the day shift and actually helping people. And it turns out that the store I got my card at is the same one I work at. And now I also have an employee discount attached to it.

So if you are reading this to read about store trips I did not forget about you. I have all these 3 papers per week worth of coupons to use up so I need places that take multiple like. To my knowledge that rules out VG's and Hollywood. Meijer takes 2 likes. But once again Kroger to the rescue. Thanks to Coupons Equal Cash for confirming for me that Kroger accepts 3 likes. So I spent the past few days looking at the Kroger matchups on Coupons Equal Cash and Bargains To Bounty and also checking a small card that I grabbed from work that has a list of all the items and going through all my coupons. And today I put them and my binder to use.

For those that may not know Kroger and some other stores have what are known as Mega events. They put sale prices on a wide range of items, and then if you buy a combination of 10 of any of those items you get a certain amount off such as $3 or $5 thus taking 30 or 50 cents off each item. So Kroger has some of the items mentioned in the ad but many are not so you need to look in the store for the special 3 way tags. The upper corner is a white section with the regular price and then in a yellow section below it is the sale price. Then on the right side is the special price you pay if you buy 10 items and get the 30-50 cents off. So regular price is $3, sale price is $2, and then Mega price $1.50.

The current Mega is a 10 item take $5 off. The hard part about doing this with coupons for me is getting things in groups of 10. Because some coupons say off 1 item others say 2 or 3 and some I used said off 5. So I have to make groups of 10 with multiple like coupons that all have different quantities and stay organized. Plus try to find any other items that might be Mega tagged. And try to keep the mega items separate in the cart from the non mega. Forgot my watch too. It was about 12:30 when I was on my way and 3:30 on my way home. I mega'd 3 times.

I went to a different Kroger than the one I work at. So I started off with the SpaghettiOs. I had 2 printed coupons that said $1 off of 5. I only grabbed 5 to start with since I didn't know what other Mega items I was getting. By the way rather than me typing out all the prices and such you can save some time by going to the 2 blog links I mentioned. Then just check the matchup's they worked hard on. They'll tell you what's got a match and where the coupons are. Also it appears that Kroger is going to continue the Mega event next week.

Next it was over to the mexican items to get my non mega Chi Chi's Tortillas. The coupon was about to expire. The sale price was $1.50 and double a $1 coupon to make them 50 cents.

Next I went to get some Advil but its not on sale so I grabbed the store brand for now.

I started looking at the frozen items but remembered from the last trip that its not good to do the cold stuff till the end. And so over to the soap aisle. I got some of the Suave for my Mom since it was mega for 89 cents. No coupons though. But that's for the 22 oz so its a good price.

They had Dial hand soap non Mega for 88 cents and a doubled 35 cent coupon would make it 18 cents each. But They also had the large 52 oz refill bottle for $2.80 Mega price or $2.10 after coupon. Now sitting here at home I have time and concentration to do the math and if the small bottles were 9 oz at 18 cents then it would take 6 to fill the 52 oz. So 6 x 18 cents = $1.08 making the smaller bottles the better deal. But I don't have 6 coupons. I used 1 of my 3 so I still have 2. I can get some small ones at work later this week with my other 2 coupons. My thinking was that I saw a bottle of a store brand around here a few weeks ago that said $1 on it so when I saw the big bottle for $2.10 it made sense. And it would if not for the small ones being on sale. So now I'm Dialed in.

Faygo 2 liters (a Detroit based soda) were $1 each. All the other non store brands were 3 or 4 for $5 so I got some Faygo. They were out of Big K diet cola. And I'm sorry but this is getting rediculous. They now want $4 for a 12 pack of Pepsi or Coke. Not from my wallet. I saw in the coupons last week that Coke will be having either 1.25 or 1.5 liter bottles soon. Great so they'll be charging $1 for those instead of their 2 liters.

I need to get to bed soon so I'll have to try to speed this up.

Mega items I got

10 SpaghettiOs - got 5 more at the end and used both my printed $1 off 5.
2 Suave - 1 S & 1 C

1 Dial 52 oz - Mega but not in ad
2 Keebler cookies

5 cans Del Monte Tomatoes - No coupon but .49 ea
2 Kelloggs Rice Krispies using the $1 off Any coupon

3 Kelloggs Cereals, 1 Corn Pops, 2 Frosted Flakes using the $1 off 3 that included them.
3 Jimmy Dean - Jimmy D's using 3 coupons for 75 cents off ea.

9 Kelloggs Pop Tarts - 3 coupons for $1 off 3. I almost got the store brand instead because the aisle was bare except for the low fat that weren't mega. But I found an end cap (end of aisle display) that had them.

6 Kellogg's Nutri Grain bars - 3 coupons for $1 off 2

3 Sunny Delight 64 oz - 3 coupons for 50 cents doubled to make them 49 or 50 cents each

1 Betty Crocker Cake Mix - 99 cent mega price
1 Betty Crocker Frosting - Not in ad but had mega tag for $2.09
Used 75 cents off Both coupon to get the pair for $2.33
According to the last time I bought the pair I paid $1.75 for them at Meijer.

2 Lysol sprays - 2 coupons for $1 off - Mega but not in ad

So if that's right I should see 30 items.....

LOL - Ok so I did the Mega 5 times
Guess I Mega Hauled more than I even thought. But I did get the groups of 10 right. Guess that helps make up the 3 hours a bit better.

I also got 3 boxes of Barilla Piccolini and used my coupons to get them for 69 cents ea.
And I got a Sure deodorant for 67 cents.

The Renuzits were $1 each and I used a buy 2 get 1 free. Or 3 for $2

The Kroger Receipts don't show a before coupon total so luckily I caught the screen before she started scanning coupons. I believe the total was $174. I also had 2 Kroger coffees, 1 bag of Old Yeller dog food, and a pack of Energizer Lithium batteries using a $1 off coupon. So that shot the total up a bit. Plus my 2 sunday papers for $3 and 2 boxes of Kroger brand granola bars. I didn't want to use my Nature Valley coupons until a better price and store brand & my discount beat it.

$174
$125.84 after scanning.
Receipt says I got 72 items

It says
Manufacturer coupon savings = $22.25
Bonus coupon savings = $2.60 which I believe is for my employee discount on the store brand items
Store Coupon and Card Savings = $58.69

That's where it gets tricky because I think all the doubled halves of the coupons went into that store coupon total and that's mixed in with all the sale prices and mega prices. Anyway I know that register was up to 174 at least so whatever way it works out it was $50 less than I would have paid without the coupons.

Since the Mega deal is continuing maybe I can go pick off what's left of my matching coupons now that I'll be able to have less to deal with.

Thanks for reading.

It was double fun while it lasted but VG's is not as Very Good as it was

If you are not aware many of the VG's stores will have a change on their coupon policy this coming weekend Aug 14th. Many stores are dropping the $1 doubling and going down to 50 cent doubling and may have some other changes. I have not been to the store myself to read any posted signs but have been reading other blogs as well as VG's Facebook page. Nothing official is being posted on the FB page but there are many customers leaving feedback. I've also asked a few questions only to be ignored. Has VG's lost me as a customer? Not yet. But they have basically taken me back to where I was a few weeks ago when I started this. I thought that VG's was a 50 cent doubler and was going to simply compare them to the other stores in my area. They kinda had me on the bandwagon a bit with the $1 doubles and took my attention away from another local store, Hollywood Market which is a 50 center. On some of the posts it says that the stores are saying that its a corporate decision but I wonder if that means VG's corporate or Spartan stores?

So here's the bottom line. I spent money on a printer. The store that gets my business will be the one that still takes printable coupons. VG's was spoiling people by not only taking them but doubling some. I'll consider myself lucky that I had a handful doubled when I didn't know they would be.

I've been on a break as far as shopping trips. I've still been collecting my 3 papers worth each week. I'm going to have to weed through my coupons though. I'm sure half of what I printed is expired by now. Which is keeping me from scratching the itch to print more until I'm actually going to use them. Those limited time prints on FB pages are tempting but no sense winning if I'm not getting the prize cashed in.

I also want to say that Hollywood Market seems to respond well to people on their FB page.